Primary Menu

Breadcrumbs

Vienna [german: Wien; hungarian: Bécs; latin: Vindobona], first known settlement as Vedunia by the Celts, but earlier settlements existed. Vienna lies ca. in the middle between Prague (250 km to the nortwest) and Budapest (220 km to the southeast) only about 50 km west of the slovak capital Bratislava. It is the largest city of Austria and the 12th largest city in Europe.

The historic centre of Vienna is one large UNESCO world heritage site. It developed mostly between the end of the osman siege of Vienna in 1683 and WWI and is shaped by the architectural ensembles in baroque, neo-classical and Art Nouveau style of the Habsburg Empire. Following its celtic roots Vienna was a roman castrum and city called Vindobona for four centuries. It first rose to prominence when the Babenberger family moved its residence to the then minor city in the 12th century. Its real height of power however came with the Habsburg family in the 15th century. They made it the capital of the Habsburg Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, withstood two osman sieges and created the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the congress of Vienna in 1815. The city became a world centre for music, arts and science in the 19th century (Mozart, Beethoven, Klimt, Freud etc.). Today Vienna is regarded a global city and home to several international organisations like the OPEC, the IAEO, the OSZE and of course, one of the home cities of the UNO. In Europe Vienna plays the role of a bridging city between Eastern and Western Europe.

Our cityscape above presents the Graben, an area once part of the wall of the roman castell, that later became a prestigious central shopping street with grand historicism and Art Nouveau architecture. Here we see, for example, the Anker-Haus by Otto Wagner on the left, the Grabenhof in the centre and the Husaren-Haus by Josef Hackhofer on the right edge.

Genoa [italian: Genova; latin, german: Genua; french: Gênes], oldest references from the 6th century BC as (a probably greek city) Stalia in Liguria but might have been inhabited much earlier. Lies on the mediterranean coast at the centre of the ligurian coastal arch, south of Milan and in the centre of a triangle with Marseille (west, 300 km), Zürich (north, 325 km) and Rome (southeast, 400km). 6th largest city in Italy, 69th largest city in europe.

Genoa, also called La Superba (the proud one), is especially known for its glorious past. The Romans renamed it Genua and gave it municipal rights. The city had its golden times as the Maritime Republic of Genoa, especially from the 12th to the end of the 14th century. During that time it was one of the leading maritime powers in the Mediterranean with colonies in the Middle East, the Aegean, Sicily and Northern Africa. It controlled Liguria, Piedmont, Sardinia, Corsica and Nice and had trade outposts in many places, especially in Spain and Constantinople. It had another golden time from the 16th century to the French Revolution when the genoese banks collaborated closely with the spanish crown. A famous son of the city was Christopher Columbus, born here in 1451. During the 19th and 20th century Genoa established itself as a ship-building and industrial powerhouse of Italy. Its Palazzi dei Rolli and the Le Strade Nuove („the new streets“) gave the city an UNESCO world heritage site and in 2004 it was a european capital of culture.

Our streetline presents a section of the southside of Via XX Settembre in Genoa. This major east-west street from the city centre (at Piazza de Ferrari) towards the East and San Vincenzo developed in the late 19th century. The street is crossed by the bridge Ponte Monumentale in its middle, which we can see at the left edge. It is a major shopping and promenading street of the Genoese and lined by representative buildings from the period, especially some of the finest Art Nouveau buildings in the region.

Click for larger view:

For classic view and more infos about the place:

We documented many more streets and places in Genoa. Find some unfinnished examples below.